At Halley’s funeral, Sara, now in her 40s, tries to come to grips with her feelings about her once-beloved cousin. She hasn't spoken to Halley in 30 years, after a family crisis tore the two apart and caused a death when they were teenagers in small-town Massachusetts.
Back in 1959, Sara was 13 and Halley, 15. The cousins stood together as a positive force against the various permutations of their dysfunctional families. But Halley was becoming a woman and slowly shrugging off the bonds between herself and Sara.
Complex family relationships, involving another cousin and, later, both girls’ fathers, led to the life-altering events at the families’ summer at Three Beaches.